


All Hallow's Eve

by Aileen Autarkeia (Fyrelass)



Series: Young Avengers [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Friendship, Gen, Genderbending, Just not in the way you'd expect, No Romance, OCs - Freeform, Team as Family, doppelgangers, multiple OCs - Freeform, seriously these people are like a family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-28 12:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6328732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyrelass/pseuds/Aileen%20Autarkeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a haunted house. Not a time-space-dimensional portal. Of course their unlucky selves got sucked straight into their favorite movie. Now they just need to make sure that they don't die. </p>
<p>Easier said than done.</p>
<p>This is the first adventure of the Young Avengers. They're probably not the ones you'd expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very old work I wrote a few years ago and posted on FF.net. It's been edited extensively and looks extremely different from the original. If you want to read the original, as cringe-worthy as it is, feel free to hop on over to FF.net to look for it. I go by Aileen Autarkeia over there as well.
> 
> Otherwise, this heavily features seven OCs that I created with help from some of my friends. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I only own my version of the Young Avengers. I don't own Marvel. Even though I really wish I did, because Pietro deserved better.

They stepped into the haunted house, giggling a bit in fright. Stephanie had her shield up defensively, even though the cardboard would be worthless in a fight. Lori was looking around warily, staff up, while Tasha was examining her blasters as if bored with the entire ordeal. Claire had an arrow to the string of her bow and Nathan had his pistols in his hands, covering each other’s backs as they advanced. Lena held her plastic hammer with a tight two handed grip as Brenda gripped her green plastic fists.

A smooth female voice spoke. “Please stand by. The experience is loading.”

Stephanie raised an eyebrow and murmured, “Back to back in a circle.”

The others nodded and did so, holding their weapons up and waiting. 

“Think it’s a trick?” Tasha muttered to Brenda.

“Probably.” Brenda’s voice was pitched higher from nerves. She cleared her throat and waited. 

There was a light breeze which was steadily picking up. Stephanie kept her eyes closed and frowned. She felt- weightless. She tucked her shield closer to her body and opened her eyes.

Almost immediately she threw herself to the side as a blast of blue light shot past her. She threw her cardboard shield up instinctively as the second blast impacted, throwing her ten feet backwards, but keeping her alive.

Slowly Stephanie sat up, ears ringing and head spinning. A familiar pale hand, bedecked with gold rings, helped her up to her feet and pushed her into a crouch.

From what she could see, it was night. There were stars out in the sky as she quickly glanced up, and uneven bricks under her feet. She was in the middle of a large plaza, surrounded with screaming people and several burning 'Polizei' cars. Police. Germany. Right.

She turned and nodded to Lori. The black-haired girl gestured to a statue plinth that was now empty, the previous occupant shattered on the ground. "Come on!" she hissed, keeping close to the ground as they sprinted.

They made it- barely- and collapsed against each other, breathing heavily. "What- the heck- is going on?!" Stephanie asked, panting slightly from a combination of nerves and exertion. Her shield weighed down her arm far more than it should’ve. She yanked it off her arm and frowned. It was made of metal now.

"I need to see better- LOOK AT ME, I'M A TARGET!" Lori shot to her feet, waving her hands in the air. Her coattails caught the breeze and flapped wildly, almost hitting her friend in the face.

Stephanie yanked her down back down quickly as a blast shot over their heads. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” she growled angrily.

Lori, however, was not listening. "Oh, Stephanie- guess who it is?" she asked in a sing-song tone.

She already had a faint idea as to where they were. The large, elegant building with the courtyard out front, the German police cars, the blue blasts of light, even her shield changing materials, all gave her a rough outline of where they were. Hesitantly, Stephanie crawled around to the side of the plinth, keeping low to the ground. Her eyes widened in shock, amazement, and a healthy dose of fear, as Captain America fought Loki in the center of Stuttgart, Germany.

They didn’t have long to wait, because at that exact moment music began blasting through the loudspeakers around the square. She groaned loudly and shot a look at Lori, who returned it, as Iron Man swooped down and blasted Loki onto some stairs.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games!" a familiar voice crowed loudly.

Both teen's heads snapped up to stare at the smaller red-and-gold figure, hovering overhead. "Tasha?!" they asked in unison.

"I wondered where you guys had gone to!" she said as she landed and they came together. She was dressed in a perfect imitation of the Iron Man Mark VI Stark himself was wearing, and rolled her shoulders as she came to a stop. "What was that whole thing about, anyways? Is this some kind of… simulation?" 

"I don't know but DUCK!" Stephanie shouted and yanked Tasha and Lori to the ground as another blast from Iron Man's wrist blasters slammed into her shield.

The quinjet landed and another figure jumped out before the back was fully down, sprinting to them. He jogged to a halt beside them, panting slightly as he rubbed his shoulder. "I have no idea what's going on but the lady that looks a heck of a lot like Natasha Romanoff was not pleased when I spontaneously appeared in the quinjet.”

"I'm surprised you're still up and walking. Look sharp, here they come," Lori hissed.

The four spread out into a half circle. Lori didn't have her staff, hands empty and palm-up to show she meant no harm, but the rest had their weapons ready to go to defend themselves and their friends.

"Who the hell are you and why the hell do you have a mini-Mark VI on?" Tony Stark asked from behind his helmet.

"I can probably ask the same of you," Steve Rogers commented to Stephanie.

She nodded slightly, more than a little star-struck and speechless. 

Natasha Romanoff pulled Loki over to where they were standing. "What did you do?" she demanded, staring at Loki. "And why the hell does he-“ this directed at Nathan- “look like me?"

"'He' has a name, you know. It's Nathan," he said, handguns in hand as he stared warily at the Black Widow.

“I did nothing,” Loki protested, staring at Lori with sharp blue eyes. “I do not understand this myself.”

“Maybe we should get out of here,” Stephanie suggested, switching which arm her shield was on and shaking the other one out. "As it stands, we’re going to be on every major news network in five minutes."

"Then you have to come with," Stark ordered. "Because I’m a little concerned about the Loki-look alike right there." 

He pointed directly at Lori, who Stephanie stepped in front of. "Her name's Lori, we've been friends for five years, and if you try to hurt her, you WILL have to go through me," she threatened.

"Ooooh, someone's feeling feisty," Stark teased. "C'mon. You can introduce yourselves on the way back to base."

Natasha nodded once and gestured for Rogers to help escort Loki to the quinjet. He didn’t try to escape at all, instead walking along willingly. The four teens drifted behind in silence, deep in their own thoughts, while Iron Man brought up the rear.

\------------------

"So why don't you introduce yourselves?" Stark asked after they settled in and took off.

"Sure! I'm Tasha," Tasha said with a cheeky grin. "I do believe that you have a mini-me now, Stark."

"Oh God- as if having just one of her wasn't enough," Nathan groaned. He raked his hand through his short red hair, making it stand straight up. "I'm Nathan."

"Stephanie," Stephanie said quietly, giving them a brief smile and wave from her place leaning on the back wall of the quinjet.

"And I am Lori," Lori said, inclining her head. She wasn’t cuffed like Loki was, something the god seemed to be faintly disapproving of, based on the looks he was giving the others. Her outfit had transformed as well, from a hand-sewn replica of Loki’s costume, to a profession-looking individual jacket. She kept inspecting it, turning pieces over and looking curiously at seams and details.

“How’d you get here, and why do you look like us?” Rogers asked, giving them all wary looks.

"Good question,” Stephanie said edgily. "I’ve got no clue.” Everything in her pose screamed ‘I’m tense’- from her arms crossed over her chest, to her ramrod straight back. She wore a cartoonishly bright version of Steve’s outfit, and she appeared to be well aware of just how bright it was, sending glares at her hands and sleeves. Her shield leaned against her legs. She’d dropped it on the ground when trying to put it onto her back.

"Agreed. Where do we start?" Tasha asked, clapping her gauntlet-covered hands together. It made a terrible noise that made them all wince. She hastily stopped and continued, "Maybe with the haunted house and the creepy lady?"

"It must've been a trap," Stephanie muttered. “Or at least it was… I don’t know.”

"It's a trap!" Tasha said, imitating the famous line almost perfectly, and grinned.

"Excuse me, can we try to take some stuff seriously right now?" Stephanie snapped, standing up straighter and taking a slightly threatening step forwards.

"Ladies, ladies, let's calm down now," Stark said soothingly, stepping forwards to put himself between the two young women. "Fighting's gonna get us nowhere."

"Look who's talking," Natasha muttered. 

Nathan snickered, which turned into a brief coughing fit as Natasha gave him a glance over her shoulder. He hastily recovered and said, "Besides, we're missing about half of our number right now, and two of them could be in super hostile territory." His shoulders slumped and he looked down at his hands. “Including my girlfriend."

"I'm sure Claire... Son of a bitch!" Lori whispered, eyes widening abruptly. She pressed her hand to her mouth and spoke around her fingers, "If she's where I think she is-"

"And Brenda- oh God," Stephanie muttered. "Poor Bren. She’s gonna be sooooo freaked out.”

"Y’know, out of the three of them, I think Lena's the one I'm least worried about,” Tasha said, a sneaky grin making its way across her face. “And that’s because-"

There was a crash of lightning outside the quinjet, swiftly followed by rolling thunder and a smaller strike of lightning. "Where'd this come from?" Natasha asked, leaning forwards to better see the sky.

Loki leaned forwards and looked up at the roof, with clear trepidation. Lori frowned, twisting a ring around her finger repetitively. Stephanie casually picked up her shield and shifted so she wasn't leaning on the back door to the quinjet. Lori nodded her thanks.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Rogers asked, raising an eyebrow. It was mostly directed at Loki, but encompassed the rest of the teens as well.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki said, and Lori mouthed the words right along with him. She glanced over and caught Stark watching her, a slight furrow appearing on his forehead, and quickly looked away again.

There was an extremely loud thump on the top of the quinjet. Everyone started a little bit. "This is like a terrible horror movie," Nathan muttered, as another, quieter thump sounded.

Stark stalked to the back door and hit the button before Tasha could stop him. The back ramp slowly lowered, and Stephanie braced against the whipping wind, shoving her blonde hair behind her ears as it went every which way.

Thor landed heavily on the ramp, shaking the entire quinjet. Stephanie braced herself on the wall, spreading her feet to rock with the motion. Tasha shifted to protect Lori from his gaze as he looked around.

And sure enough, Lena landed right behind him.

"Lena!" Stephanie shouted. She grabbed a strap on the ceiling with one hand and reached out the other to help her friend into the quinjet. Lena took it and scrambled inside, where she briefly hugged Stephanie and turned to nod to the other three.

She was dressed in proper armor now, not the navy t-shirt with tinfoil circles glued on she’d been wearing before. Now she wore a gorgeous replica of Thor’s armor, made more feminine with more curlicues. Her leggings were made of thicker material, and her arms appeared to be covered in scale-mail. A bright red cloak brushed the heels of her boots. She also didn’t have a weapon, they noted, though Mjolnir was in Thor’s fists. Her ashen blonde hair was perfectly curled, falling down her back in ringlets that reached her mid back. Part of them were pulled up and away from her face, meeting at the back of her head. 

Thor, in the meantime, threw Stark halfway across the quinjet into the wall separating the cockpit from the main cabin. He grabbed Loki and hauled him out of the seat, not bothering to undo the straps holding Loki in place (they snapped like over-stretched rubber bands anyways), before gesturing to Lena. "Come along," he said, and she waved cheerfully before hopping out behind him.

"And now there's those two," Stark commented as he got to his feet, staring out the open back.

"Hey, Lena's a friendly. Don't diss her," Tasha complained as she stood up and put her helmet back on. The faceplate remained up as she turned and nodded to the others still in the quinjet.

"Ok, so now there's that guy," Stark said. He still sounded extremely annoyed.

"More Asgardians?" Natasha called from the cockpit.

"These people are friendlies?" Rogers shouted back, looking incredulous. His voice was almost lost to the strong winds whipping around the inside of the quinjet.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Stark was already warming up his engines, preparing to blast after the strange man. Tasha moved up to stand beside him, flipping her faceplate down.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack," Rogers said urgently, as he picked up his shield and held onto it. 

"I have a plan. Attack." 

Stark turned to launch off the ramp and found Tasha waiting for him, leaning into the wind slightly. "Well? Are you coming or not?" she shouted to him.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said in return, and they blasted off into the night sky together. Stephanie sighed and shook her head, reaching over to grab a parachute as Rogers did.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap, mini-Cap," Romanoff called from the cockpit, still maneuvering the quinjet through the sky.

"I don't see how I can," Rogers said. "But you-“ he looked over at Stephanie- “need to stay here."

"If I don't, Lena or Tasha are gonna get themselves hurt. Mostly Tasha. Definitely Tasha. I'm not gonna stand by idly while they duke it out," she snapped in return, shoving her arms and legs into the parachute harness. With the final strap tightened, she looked up half a foot into his eyes and crossed her arms. “I’m going, with or without your permission.”

"These guys come from legend, they're basically gods," Romanoff called, attracting their attention once more.

"Lena isn't a goddess, Agent. Besides..." Stephanie turned to look at Rogers.

"There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that." He nodded at her and sprinted forward off the back. Stephanie followed right behind him- realizing too late that she had never been skydiving before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena and Tasha have a chat. Brenda gets in trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the views, everyone. Not sure what you thought about the last chapter, but hopefully you like this one.

Lena landed with Thor and stepped away immediately, waving him away to talk to his brother. She wandered a short distance away, carefully picking her way down the cliff. 

Thor growled loudly in frustration and she turned to look at him, slightly worried. He was shouting at Loki, which didn't surprise her in the least.

She looked up, searching for the tell-tale signs of the Iron Man armor. Sure enough, two streaks of light in the sky caught her attention. The larger of the two dove, levelled out parallel with the ground, and shot right past her, tackling Thor away from Loki. The smaller of the two landed in front of her. She tensed marginally, just in case.

Tasha flipped her face mask up and grinned at Lena, ignoring Stark and Thor altogether. "I'm not gonna attack you, if that's what you're worried about," she said cheerfully, resting her hands on her hips.

Lena relaxed her stance and smiled back. "I was, indeed, slightly worried that you would attempt to neutralize me."

"Whoa, little Miss Thor, Shakespeare in the Park much?"

Lena laughed at that and peered over the edge of the cliff. “Shall we go interfere, or shall we remain here and observe from a distance?” she asked.

“Eh, if we wanna go spook ‘em by quoting right along with them, we can go. Otherwise why bother?” Tasha shrugged, throwing both hands out carelessly. 

 

“A fair point.” Lena sat down on the edge of the cliff, feet dangling over the sheer drop. Tasha sat down beside her, kicking her armored feet lazily.

"When'd you show up?" Tasha asked cheerfully, watching as the two men argued far below them. 

"I appeared as the Bifrost placed him on Earth. He told me he left Asgard alone and I was there with him in the Bifrost when he arrived. Yourself?" she asked.

"He was somewhere over the English Chunnel and I dropped straight outta the sky. He almost tackled me. That was... entertaining."

They looked down and watched as Thor used Mjolnir to overload Stark’s suit. Faintly, they heard Jarvis tell Stark, "Power is at 400%, sir."

"Well." They could hear the smirk on his face, even at that distance. "How 'bout that."

Lena’s fists clenched as Stark powered up his blaster and fired at Thor. She made as if to move forward, but Tasha grabbed her arm and held on determinedly. "Don't, Lena. He'll be fine," she muttered.

Lena looked down at Thor, fists still tight, but nodded and relaxed all the same.

They fell silent, watching the battle with a very dry amusement. They were going on their fifth bag of imaginary popcorn, making commentary all the while, when a red-white-and-blue shield slammed into Thor and rebounded into Iron Man's chestplate.

"Uh oh, brace," Tasha warned, setting herself firmly. 

Lena frowned at the scene far below. “Should we retreat?” she asked.

“To where?” Tasha retaliated. Lena shrugged at that and nodded. 

"If you really want to help us, put the hammer down." Rogers’ voice was faint, but they could hear the strength in it.

“See Stephanie anywhere?” Tasha asked, holding onto the edge of the cliff with both hands as she scanned the battlefield.

“Hm… Yes. She is there, hiding behind that boulder,” Lena said, pointing her out. “Should we attract her attention?”

Tasha considered it. “Nah. She’ll see us. Besides, she can’t get up here-“

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Thor shouted below them, voice carrying up to where they sat.

"Oh dear," Lena murmured.

The shockwave from Asgardian hammer meeting Vibranium shield blasted them backwards a few feet, even from where they sat. It also leveled a good size clearing around the men below. Lena and Tasha exchanged looks, before Tasha dropped her faceplate, picked up Lena, and descended to the clearing.

They landed as the three men picked themselves up and met back at the center of the clearing. Stephanie emerged from behind her boulder shield and made her way over to the other two young women, resting her hands on her hips and giving the three men a deeply unamused look. Tasha snickered at that; the sound never made it out of her helmet. 

"Are we done here?" Rogers demanded. 

There were a few brief nods, before Thor and Rogers went to retrieve Loki and Stark went up to guide the quinjet in to land. The girls took that opportunity to talk quietly to each other, out of earshot from the adults. "How is Nathan?" Lena asked in a hushed tone of voice. “Doubtless, he is anxious about Claire being in danger.”

"Not… well," Stephanie said. "Lori's on eggshells around the others too. They haven’t said anything, but it’s evident that they really don't trust her."

"I find myself unable to blame them," Lena said. "After all Loki has done, I would find it hard to trust a girl who could pass for his daughter."

Tasha coughed out a laugh as the quinjet landed. Thor and Rogers escorted Loki back onto the quinjet, and they followed at a more sedate pace. "Yeah. Natasha really doesn’t like Nathan. It's really funny, actually-"

"Are you three gonna quite honking like a bunch of geese and get on the quinjet?" Stark called as he landed in front of them and boarded the quinjet.

"Yeah, we’re coming," Stephanie called back, followed by a longsuffering sigh. "It's gonna be a loooooong plane ride, isn’t it."

\----------

Brenda opened her eyes as her feet landed back on the ground. She looked at herself first in confusion, noticing her green plastic fists were gone. She now had a pretty lavender button-up shirt over her dark green tank top, with dark gray cargo pants. Her shoes were now black and purple tennis shoes. Her hair was still dark and curly as she pulled a bit forward to examine, but seemed slightly thicker. Somehow it’d ended up tied tightly back into a pony tail.

She looked away from her hair and felt her jaw drop.

She was standing in what appeared to be an exact replica of the SHIELD laboratory from The Avengers. A wall of windows displayed the most realistic looking underside of the Helicarrier she’d ever seen before. Stainless steel tables were scattered throughout the room, some loaded down with technology far beyond anything she’d ever seen, others completely barren. There were clear screen everywhere, attached to the ceiling with robotic arms. Some were just panes of glass- turned off, she guessed- but others displayed a bunch of science-y stuff she didn't understand. 

She barely dared to breathe as she slowly stepped out of her shadowy corner. Cautiously, she approached one of the screens that was on and tentatively poked a panel, just to see if it really was a working screen. The panel enlarged to fill half the screen; she took a half-step back, staring at it in shock, before frowning at the graphic in front of her. She raised a finger again to close the panel and hopefully go figure out what was going on.

"What are you doing?!"

Brenda jerked her hand back and stifled a shriek. She whirled to see who had spoken to her and took a step back. Dr. Bruce Banner stood in the doorway to the lab, a cup of coffee clutched in his left hand as his right hovered over an emergency button beside the door.

"I'm sorry!" Brenda wailed, throwing her hands up to show that she was unarmed. "I don't know what's going on! I was just trying to figure it out!"

"Who… are you?" Banner asked, warily taking his hand off the button and walking forward. “You don’t look like a SHIELD technician.”

"I'm Brenda. You're Dr. Banner, right?" she said worriedly.

"Yes..." He still appeared cautious of her.

"Oh no...” Brenda whispered, feeling blood drain from her face. “Where are the others?" 

"Others?"

"Captain America, Iron Man, those people."

Banner gave her a suspicious look. "They’re away on business.” 

“In Germany?” she asked, deciding just to guess about it.

His eyes widened. “That’s top secret. How do you know that?”

Brenda shrunk away from him, pulling her arms in to hug her abdomen. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just needed to know,” she said, half-frantic. “Oh, this is not good, this is not good at all…"

"Look, I don't know who you are, or how you know so much, but I’d suggest leaving now," Banner said, not unkindly.

"But I can't... I don’t think I can go back. Trust me, if I could, I would!” she said hastily, raising her hands again. “But I don’t know how.”

"What do you mean?" Banner asked sharply.

"I don’t know how to go home. Please, you’ve got to believe me," she pleaded.

"I’ll try, but you’ve got to be more clear about what you mean,” he told her soothingly. “Just tell me where you came from-“ 

The doors to the lab slammed open and several armed guards poured into the room, guns pointed at Brenda. "Freeze! Put your hands where we can see them!" one shouted at her.

Brenda's eyes widened and she obeyed, quite obviously completely terrified. "Ok! Just don't shoot!" she begged, eyes filling with tears.

"You need to come with us," the same man said, lowering his gun and advancing. Brenda took a step back as he grabbed her upper arm with a vice-like grip. She obediently walked to the group of guards, though she was shaking like a leaf. Evidently, she wasn't fast enough, because one of the other men reached out and roughly dragged her to their group. She yelped at his tight grip, shying away from him. 

"No need to be so rough,” Banner snapped. “She's as confused about this as we are and a lot more scared."

"Yessir," one of them said, this one a woman. She took over holding onto Brenda’s arm; her grip was much lighter than the mens’ had been. "Fury gave us orders to apprehend the unknown and take her to a holding cell."

Brenda whimpered softly and hugged herself silently, tucking her head forward in fear. "Be nice to her," Banner ordered. 

“Yessir,” the woman said, and saluted to him as they left the lab.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team collects Brenda and meets the Director. Shit gets real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos and bookmark, guys. I appreciate it. Starting over on another site is really difficult, and I know it'll take a while to build back up to how many views I had over on FF.net. It's a start, though, and starting is often the most difficult part.
> 
> Enjoy.

As soon as the group of teens from Stuttgart stepped off the quinjet, they were surrounded by agents. “You’re to come with us,” one of them said. “Director’s orders. Will you come quietly?”

“Considering it’s just a group of teenage girls and a guy, what harm could we possibly do?” Tasha drawled as she flipped her faceplate up. 

“She means yes,” Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. “Tasha, maybe you should leave the armor with Stark.”

“Good idea. Yo, Stark!” she shouted, and waved him over. “How the fuck do I get outta this?”

Nathan chortled at that. Stephanie groaned and rested her forehead in her palm, shaking her head briefly. Lena grinned and crossed her arms over her chest, watching them. Stark smirked and walked over to show Tasha how to get out of the armor.

“Probably should take a look at making that a lot easier,” Tasha said once she was out of the armor, looking at the pile of parts on the deck. She rapped her helmet with one knuckle. “I like this. I’m taking it with me.” She shoved it under one arm and turned around to grin at the others. “We good to go?” 

They took a twisting route through a maze of corridors. Within just a few turns, Lena had lost all sense of direction; she just hoped that they wouldn’t be locked up as enemies of SHIELD. Luckily, that didn’t seem to be the case, as they finally arrived at a meeting room, not a holding cell. “The Director will be with you shortly,” the leader of the team said as he opened the door for them and allowed them inside.

Stephanie took point, sweeping the room for traps. Her eyes fell on a small figure, seated on a chair in the corner, balled up with her knees to her chest. “Brenda!" she cried, causing the shorter girl to look up. As soon as she saw who it was, Brenda hurled herself out of the chair and towards them. Stephanie caught the much shorter girl and wrapped her up in a hug. 

"Thank goodness you're here,” Brenda said, relief thick in her voice. It was muffled by Stephanie’s uniform, but was still clearly audible. “I almost caused a Hulk-out…"

"You did what?!” Tasha asked, walking around Stephanie to rest a hand on Brenda’s back.

"I popped out of nowhere, had no idea what was going on, and was absolutely terrified, because there was Doctor Banner and he looked really confused and a little mad, and then some people came and they were rough with me and brought me here-"

"Shh, Brenda. Calm down, friend," Lena murmured, stroking Brenda's back. They all gathered around the smallest girl, group hugging. "You are safe now. We are here."

Lori drew away after a moment, looking down at her friend. “You said they were rough with you?” she asked, a deadly glint entering her brilliant green eyes. 

Brenda backpedaled immediately. “No, they weren’t, they were just doing their job-“

Nathan reached out and rolled her sleeve up. There were light handprint-shaped bruises on her upper arms. They all looked murderous in a split second. 

“You guys know I bruise easy,” Brenda said, trying to calm them down before they went on a rampage. “It’s fine, it’s nothing. I’ll heal fast and be fine in a few hours.”

Stephanie took her face in her hands and stared at her. “They still hurt you,” she said, very calm and very quiet. “And I am going to track them down and kick their collective-“

“Asses?” Tasha suggested, cracking her knuckles suggestively.

“That’ll do,” the blonde decided, before pulling Brenda close again. “But hey, we’re here now, and the next people that try that are going to get their butts personally handed to them on a silver platter by all of us.” She eyed a security camera in the corner of the room that was trained on them. “Clear?”

After that, they settled into seats around the conference table- all except for Tasha, who insisted on sitting on the table. She chatted with each of them in turn, scooting herself around in a circle instead of bothering to just turn herself around. She wore a Black Sabbath shirt that matched the one Tony wore, and black pants to match. She’d kicked off her shoes as soon as she’d sat down, leaving her in polka-dotted socks instead.

“So, where do we go from here?” Tasha asked, folding her hands over her helmet in her lap. 

“Along for the ride, I guess,” Brenda whispered. She sat beside Stephanie, playing with her shirt as her eyes darted around. “Don’t know that there’s much else we can do.”

“Agreed,” Stephanie decided. Her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m just worried for Claire, mostly.”

“You think you’re worried,” Nathan muttered, raking his hands through his short red hair. Tasha turned her attention to him and sized him up. He had on a black long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants. The guards had taken away his handguns, but left his Widow’s Bite untouched. He was stiff and straight-backed in his seat, blue eyes staring, empty, at the table.

“Claire has a strong spirit,” Lena said, booming voice gentle. “She will be all right.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. He patted her hand; a wan smile appeared on his face for a moment. 

Footsteps out in the hall made them look up. “Heads up,” Lori murmured. “I’m going to make a wild guess and say that it’s the Director and his posse.”

Sure enough, the door to their room slid open with a quiet hiss and several soldiers entered. They spread out to flank the door, before Director Fury himself walked in. Agents Hill and Coulson stood to either side. 

Immediately, tension filled the room. Tasha glanced around, noting positions. Stephanie’s back was ramrod straight; her eyes were frozen, one hand resting on Brenda’s shoulder as she stared at Fury. Lena turned to eye the Director from one eye. Her hands tensed at her sides, fingers curling up into claws. Nathan was unwilling to look up from the table. 

She broke the silence and shoved off the table, standing up and grinning at the Director. “Yo! Nice to meet you. Tasha Stark, at your service.” She stuck one hand out, tucking her helmet under the other arm.

“Director Fury of SHIELD. These are my colleagues, Agent Hill and Agent Coulson.” Fury gave her a sharp look, but didn’t shake her hand. She dropped it back to her side. "So you're Stark’s daughter?"

"Uh- I'm pretty sure I'm not," Tasha said shrugging one shoulder. "Try clone. Mini-me, doppelgänger, whatever other synonym there is for that."

"Wow, turning into a walking dictionary there, Tasha,” Nathan muttered. He continued to stare at the table in front of him. She spun around and shot him the finger. He waved her off, rolling his eyes before looking up and raising one hand briefly. “Nathan. If I follow her lead, I’m Nathan Romanoff.”

"Then… I suppose I would be Brenda… Banner?" Brenda said, looking around for confirmation. Fury looked over at her, single eye staring at her. She drew back from the man, fidgeting with her fingers. Stephanie squeezed her shoulder, eyes still locked on Fury. He turned his attention to her after a moment.

"And you are..."

"Stephanie Rogers." She didn't say any more, just nodded once. Her face was still icy.

"Lena Thorsdoitter, I believe. It is a pleasure to meet you," Lena said. Her voice sounded cheerful, but Tasha could tell she was faking it- making herself sound happier than she actually felt. She strode forwards and offered Fury her hand to shake, keeping her smile firmly in place. She withdrew it after he didn't take it.

"Lori… would it be Lokisdoitter?" she asked, looking around for confirmation. 

Stephanie watched Fury carefully as his attention shifted to her. She straightened just a touch in her seat, something the Director noticed. "We're not gonna separate you for now," Maria Hill said, attempting to sound soothing. "We just want some answers as to why some specific people have doppelgängers, as you called them."

"Simple. Any of us can tell you that," Stephanie said with a brief shrug. Her hand still rested on Brenda’s shoulder, thumb moving in soothing circles.

The room fell silent, before Coulson spoke up. "Why would that be?” He sounded faintly interested in what was going on. He also wasn’t fooling any of them for a second.

"The Avengers,” Lori said, rising to her feet gracefully and leaning forward to rest her palms flat on the conference table. “It doesn't really take a genius to put two and two together- or in this case, three and four."

"There's only six of you here," Agent Hill said.

"Think about it, Agent,” Brenda murmured. Her eyes remained fixed on the table.

"Miss Rogers, Lokisdoitter, and Stark and Mr. Romanoff all appeared in Stuttgart,” Coulson murmured as he looked at his tablet. “Miss Thorsdoitter wasn't far behind. Miss Banner appeared in the same lab as Dr. Banner... meaning..."

Comprehension dawned on their faces.

"That's right,” Stephanie said. “Currently, Claire Barton is MIA. We all believe that she could be with Clint Barton as we speak. She may be under mind control, she may not be. We have no way of knowing, but any way you look at it, she’s in danger- which makes it all the more imperative that we find the Tesseract."

Immediately all weapons were bristling on the soldiers. "How do you know about the Tesseract?" Director Fury asked, eye sweeping the room.

Tasha laughed humorlessly. "Put the weapons down- THEN we'll talk."

With a nod from Fury, the guns all came down. Lena nodded her thanks and spoke. “It is a long story. One I am afraid we do not have time for.” 

“I’m sorry, but we’re reluctant to let you out until we know just how big of a threat you are to us.”

Stephanie slammed her hands on the table and stood straight up. “I’d say you’re the bigger threat here, considering how your people _manhandled_ my best friend,” she growled through clenched teeth. “We’re _teenagers_. We’re so far out of our element we’re like-“ 

“Teenagers going outside?” Tasha suggested, trying desperately to diffuse the situation. “English majors in a Home Depot?”

Lori chortled and covered her mouth with her hand, turning away.

Stephanie shot her a look, but then sighed and relaxed. “I’m sorry. It’s been a really, really rough day.” She ran a hand through her hair and let her shoulders slump. 

“Hey,” Brenda murmured, patting one hand. “’S ok.”

“Thanks, Bren,” she whispered back.

“So,” Tasha said, turning to look at the Director once again. “I’m pretty sure we’re not exactly the biggest threats on the board right now. How’s about letting us out to wander?”

Eyes flickered to Lori. 

“I believe she would not mind staying near me,” Lena said calmly, “if that is what you are concerned with.” 

“What, you mean you don’t trust the young woman who looks a wee bit like Loki?” Lori asked, widening her eyes in falsified shock. “Say it isn’t so!”

Even Stephanie cracked a smile at that one. “So are you going to let us out?” she asked, straightening up again. 

Director Fury and the two agents glanced at each other. “I don’t see why not,” Fury said eventually. “But we’ll be keeping an eye on you.” 

“Fair enough,” Tasha decided, and brushed past them as easy as you please.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doppelgangers officially meet their adult counterparts. Stephanie gets a lesson in fighting from Steve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of a sudden I'm getting Kudos and views at an expanded rate. Thanks, guys! 
> 
> Enjoy this chapter.

There was a brief moment of silence after the screens shut off. “That was… interesting,” Banner muttered, staring blankly at where the screen had been. 

“No kidding,” Stark muttered, tapping the glass in a random pattern. “The tension in that room…” He whistled. “I’m not even sure a knife could cut it.”

“So they manhandled Banner’s doppelganger?” Rogers asked, looking up and around. 

“Sounds like it,” Natasha murmured. She was frowning, just a tiny bit. “Wonder which team it was. I’d like to have… words with them.”

“I find myself surprised that Lena and Lori were able to correctly create their last names,” Thor said. “They must have some knowledge of the Norse myths surrounding Asgard.”

“I just wonder where they came from,” Rogers murmured, tapping his knuckle on the table. “Something about them seems… off.”

“Like how they knew about the Tesseract?” Banner asked. 

“And how they dropped out of the sky, dressed like us and carrying our weapons- all except for the hammer,” Stark said, gesturing to Mjolnir, which lay on the table. 

“Mjolnir is a unique weapon, forged in the heart of a star-“ Thor started to say, before Stark waved him off.

“Yeah, yeah, we understand that, Point Break,” he said casually. “Heads up.”

Fury walked out of the hallway, flanked by Hill and Coulson. They split off as he arrived at the table. “I sent them to change out of their armor and into more normal clothes,” he said without preamble. "They should be finishing up. Thor, if you could take both Lori and Lena-“

"It would be no problem," Thor said, nodding once.

"Good. Captain, I suggest that you take Stephanie to the gym and train her. Agent Romanoff, don't break Nathan. Mr. Stark, I think you should go to the lab with the Banners-"

"That makes it sound like I have a child," Banner mumbled. “A teenage child.”

Stark snorted at that. "Get in line- we all sound like we've become parents. This is going to be awkward..."

As he finished speaking, the doors behind Fury slid open. The younger teens stepped inside cautiously. Stephanie was at the head, wearing a dark red shirt and loose blue shorts instead of her uniform. "Hello," she said, looking them with a wary eye.

All eyes seemed to drift towards Lori, and the others noticed it. Without so much as a word to each other, the teens drifted in front of her.

Brenda, strangely enough, broke the tense silence first by walking towards Banner, extending a hand in the process. "We've already met, though less… formally."

Banner took her hand and shook it. They walked back over to the table and sat down in two chairs, facing each other; their murmured conversation was so quiet no one else could hear them.

On the other hand, Stark was anything but quiet when Tasha split off from the group and strode towards him. "Hello there, mini-me!" he said, sticking his hand out for her to shake.

"I believe you've got it backwards- YOU'RE MY mini-me," Tasha said with a smirk as she shook. They fell into an easy pattern of banter, walking a distance away from the rest of the group to keep up their conversation.

Stephanie stepped away from Lori when it was clear no one was going to separate her from the group. She leaned over and whispered something in her friend's ear.

"Go," Lori said, patting her arm. "I'll be just fine."

Stephanie nodded a bit and walked over to Rogers, sticking out her hand. "I'm Stephanie Rogers.”

"Nice to meet you, Stephanie. Call me Steve," he said as he took her hand and shook.

She took up a position right next to him, arms crossed over her chest as she surveyed her friends. Lena escorted Lori over to introduce her stepsister to Thor. Lori looked out of place among the other pairs, with her own original absent from the gathering. Stephanie made a mental note to include her as much as possible elsewhere.

Nathan sat down beside Natasha and spoke with her about something. She cut him short with a murmured few words, a short answer to what must've been a question.

Stephanie sighed heavily as she thought of their final member, still missing from their midst. Steve heard and turned to look at her. "Are you ok?" he asked in concern.

Stephanie nodded a bit and said, "Yeah. Just thinking of Claire... and what she must be going through..."

"I'm sure she'll be fine," he said, patting her shoulder.

"I'm sure she will too," Stephanie murmured. "But it's after she's safe that worries me."

He frowned a bit. "What do you mean? Like PTSD?"

"Maybe,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “It depends. If she's forced to do something against her will, like... kill someone- when the Tesseract leaves, she'll be left with the repercussions of her actions, even though they weren't her own. She might need a therapist. I hope not."

Steve stood there for a moment, rather awkwardly, before saying, "Do you want me to teach you how to fight?"

Stephanie smiled up at him. "Yeah, actually. I wanted to ask, but I was a bit afraid to..."

"No need to be afraid. Let's go," he said, and led the way out of the room. Stephanie caught her friends’ attention and signaled that she was leaving. The others waved goodbye to her as she left.

Lena turned back to Thor, speaking rapidly about lightning. "-and lightning hit the tree in front of our house when we were little- do you remember, Lori?" she asked, turning to her step-sister. Lori stood a bit away from them, inspecting her nails in apparent boredom. She nodded without looking up, barely trying to look interested.

Lena sighed and her shoulders sagged a bit. "I apologize, sister. I am trying my hardest..." she trailed off.

"No- sister, it isn’t that," Lori said, sounding a bit upset as she stepped forward and hugged Lena's shoulders. "It is simply the fact that they won't let me talk to Loki. No offense- you are nice," she said hastily to Thor, "but I am Loki's duplicate."

"I understand," Thor said, resting a large hand on her shoulder. "What would you say to going and getting coffee? I do not believe it to be as good as it was at Jane Foster's town, but it shall do."

Lena nodded, as Lori grinned up at him. "That sounds excellent," Lori said. "Let's go."

Tasha thumped down in the seat across from Brenda. "Getting along well?" she asked cheerfully.

Brenda looked up from a small screen Banner had pulled up. "Oh, hey! Yeah, Bruce was just showing me what all the things on the lab screens mean."

"Oh, so it's Bruce, now, is it?" she asked, with a teasing glint in her eye.

"I did hear you calling Stark 'Tony'," Brenda shot back. "So don't go pointing fingers."

Tasha gave her a flashy grin. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she purred.

Brenda pushed herself to her feet. Tasha held in a laugh; Brenda was only about a foot taller than Bruce- even though the latter was still sitting down. "Are we going to the lab?" she asked him.

He nodded and stood up as well. He was a solid foot taller than Brenda standing up. "Ok. Let's go," he said firmly and led the way out of the room.

Stark clapped a hand onto Tasha's shoulder. "What say we follow them?" he asked her. "Spidey-clone and the Widow have vanished off to God-knows-where. Just us left."

Tasha started and looked around. Sure enough, she and the billionaire were the only ones left. "Oh- alright. Let's go!" she said and shoved her chair back. She rose to her feet and followed behind Tony as he left the main bridge.

\------

*Wham wham*

"Good. Try again. Harder, this time. Make that bag swing."

*Wham wham*

"Tighten your fists up- you're slipping. Again."

*Wham wham*

"Much better. Take a break," Steve Rogers instructed.

Stephanie breathed out in relief and stepped away from the punching bag, walking over to the boxing ring. She sat on the side and took a sip of her water bottle, sighing as she took a deep breath and wiped her mouth off. Steve came over and sat beside her, stretching his long legs in front of him.

"So, you've never fought before?" he asked.

Stephanie shook her head. "Nope. Not fighting against someone, at least. I've taken self-defense courses before, though."

"Did you learn a lot?"

"Um. Let me put it this way. What I've learned from you in- what? one hour?- would have taken me about five lessons to learn."

"So not a lot then." He felt the corners of his mouth twitch in amusement.

"Yeah," Stephanie said with a brief laugh.

They sat in silence for a few more moments, before Stephanie suddenly said, "Thank you."

"For what?" Steve asked, turning to look at her.

"For taking the time to teach me this," Stephanie said with a shrug. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Steve said. "Ready to get back to work?"

Stephanie groaned good-naturedly, and Steve laughed. "Ok. How about we take a break from punching and work on kicking?"

She brightened at that. "Sure!"

They stood up and walked back to the punching bag. Stephanie unwrapped her hands and planted her feet about shoulder-width apart.

"I'm gonna start you on a roundhouse kick. Set yourself like you're about to punch something." She did so; he moved around her, adjusting her stance somewhat, before nodding in satisfaction. "Alright. Now pivot your right side away a bit, so that your left side is facing the target." Again, she moved to the position and he adjusted her stance. "Bring your leg up and around- make sure to pivot!- and slam the inside bit of your foot into the side of the target."

She pivoted and gently placed her foot on the punching bag, before resetting her stance. Her eyes narrowed at the target, imagining an enemy in front of her. Stephanie took a deep breath, swung around, and slammed her foot into the punching bag. It swung a bit, quivering, before Steve grabbed it to make it stop moving.

"Nice try. Again. How's your balance?"

"Decent," Stephanie said with a shrug. "I wouldn't say it's my forte or anything, but it's ok."

"Alright. Try to keep a bit more of your weight on your left foot. Ready to try again?"

Stephanie nodded and set herself up again. She readied, focused, and pivoted again, slamming her foot into the side of the bag. Again it swung, but looked weak compared to Steve's abilities.

"One more time. Really put some spin on that kick," Steve said, grabbing the bag once more.

Stephanie nodded. "Ok. One last go."

She set her balance firmly, bouncing a little bit on her toes until she was sure she was evenly set. *Breathe in... breathe out...* she ordered herself. Her vision started to tunnel in as she stared at the punching bag. She waited until it was almost tiny pinpricks of light- and struck.

Her foot was fast as lightning as it shot out and slammed into the bag. That time, it was dead on, and the two super soldiers both knew it. The bag flew off the hook and into the punching bag next to it, creating a magnificent crash and spilling sand everywhere.

"Nicely done!" Steve said with a grin, clapping loudly.

Stephanie bounced up and down, ponytail dancing behind her, with a huge smile on her face. "Yay! Thank you!" she shouted, and before Steve could say anything, she hugged him around his middle.

It was an entertaining sight for any outsider. Steve looked rather confused as he gently patted Stephanie's back. She drew back after a moment, blushing a little.

"Um... sorry," she said, obviously very embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Shall we go back to punching?" Steve asked, and laughed at her groan of discontent.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Banner, Stark, and Rogers have a chat. Steve and Stephanie go searching for trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the views, guys. Enjoy.

"Well, Rogers' serum carried to Stephanie," Tasha remarked from her position on the only empty table in the lab. She stared at a screen dangling directly in front of her face. Brenda sighed as she walked by and pulled the screen to a more suitable distance of one foot away from Tasha's face instead of the previous three inches. Tasha responded by pulling it back to its previous position.

"What are you doing?" Bruce asked suspiciously from his place next to the staff, which he was running some sort of scanner over.

"Oh, nothing much. Just watching Stephanie training with Rogers and Lori, Lena, and Thor enjoying coffee. You?"

"Trying to figure this damn thing out," Tony growled.

“Chill, bro,” Tasha said, injecting so much boredom into her voice it almost went straight around and was interested again. 

They lazed around for a while- well, Tasha mostly- before Tony said, "Y'know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors are all R&D. You'd love it, it's a candy land."

"Thanks but- last time I was in New York I kind of- broke- Harlem," Bruce muttered, focusing on the staff. Brenda watched as his shoulders hunched over and in, creating a sort of barrier around him. 

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises-" Tony used some sort of small handheld screwdriver to poke Banner in the side.

"Ow!" he yelled and jumped a little bit. Brenda slapped the object out of Tony's hands with barely a thought, ignoring his slight wince.

"Hey!" a familiar voice shouted as the doors opened and Stephanie and Steve came in.

"Nothing?" Tony asked, watching Bruce closely for any other reaction. He scooped the thing back up again and tapped it in the palm of his hand a few times.

"Are you nuts?" Steve demanded, smoothly stepping a bit to his right to partially shield Stephanie. She rolled her eyes and stepped around him, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched the room.

"Jury's out," Tony said casually, before turning to look at Bruce again. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Drugs are not cool," Tasha said lazily, opening another window and examining the agents walking below the camera.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Stephanie asked rhetorically, stealing Steve's line. She didn’t really seem to be into it, either; her eyes sparkled mischievously as she spoke.

"Funny things are," Tony said as he moved on to another screen and set the pointer down.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny- no offense, Doc. Especially now that we have kids aboard," Steve said, ignoring the three girl's grumbles about his terminology for them.

"No-uh- it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle- pointy things." Bruce gestured vaguely to the thing on the table, which Brenda picked up as she passed and stuck in her pocket.

"You're tip-toeing, big man. You need to strut," Tony said, pointing his finger at Bruce.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mister Stark," Steve said edgily. Stephanie laid her hand on his arm briefly and walked over to where Brenda and Tasha were, peering over Tasha's shoulder at the screen.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us?” Tony popped what looked like a freeze-dried blueberry in his mouth and continued, “I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he is the spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony picked up the small shiny bag with the blueberries and ate one. He pointed at Bruce and said, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Bruce shifted away from Tony's pointing finger. "Aah- I just wanna finish my work here and..." Bruce trailed off and seemed to be thinking of something.

"Bruce?" Brenda asked. Or she seemed to be asking, but was really prompting.

"'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube," Bruce suddenly said.

"I heard it," Steve said, sounding puzzled.

"I didn't," Stephanie murmured, eyes transfixed on the screen.

"Well, I think that was meant for you." Bruce pointed at Stark, who held out the silver baggie of fruit. He declined and continued, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked incredulously. "That big ugly- building in New York?" He changed words half-way through the sentence, after Stark shot him a glare. Tasha muttered something uncomplimentary about Steve and Stephanie slapped the back of her head, still watching the screen.

"It's powered by an arc reactor- like that thing," Brenda said quietly as she gestured in Tony's general direction. "It's an energy source, supposed to be clean power. That building will run itself for... what? A year?"

"It's just the prototype," Tony said airily, waving his hand casually. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that's what she's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?" Steve asked.

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files." Tony walked over to the computer and opened a window, examining a progress bar.

"Excuse me?" Stephanie and Steve chorused as Stephanie finally stepped away from the screen.

"Jarvis has been running it ever since I hit the bridge. Within a few hours, I'll know every dirty little secret SHIELD has to hide."

"And you wonder why they didn't want you on board," Steve murmured. Stephanie walked to stand next to him silently, biting her lip.

"An intelligence agency that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome," Tasha said, eyes still glued to the screen.

"Hey, that's my line!" Tony whined.

"It was," she shot back.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them," Steve said, taking a half-step forward.

"Following's not really my style," Tony commented.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve said.

"Out of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangley outfit and B) not of use?"

Stephanie winged a small pen at Tony. It thumped off his head as he jumped and yelled, "OW!" She half-smirked and raised an eyebrow as he looked like he was going to try to get retribution.

"Steve- tell me none of this seems fishy to you," Bruce pleaded, finally looking up from the scepter.

He was silent for a moment, before finally saying, "Just find the cube." He turned and walked to the door of the lab, pausing so Stephanie could catch up. She smiled at him as he let her through the door before him and paused as the doors closed behind them.

Steve looked right, left, and right again, before he gently tapped Stephanie's shoulder and murmured, "Not that way. Follow me."

\-----

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony asked incredulously once he was sure Steve and Stephanie couldn't hear him. "Wondering if they shouldn't've just kept him on ice." Tasha looked up at him from the computer screen, silently wondering if that was disappointment she detected in his voice.

"The guy's not wrong about Loki; he does have the jump on us," Bruce murmured, brow furrowed as he focused on the data coming in from the scepter.

"What he's got-" Tony started to say, but Tasha cut him off.

"-is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I REALLY wanna be there when it does."

Tony shot a glare at her as Bruce said, "And I'll read about it."

"Uh huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve.” Bruce shuddered. “It's a nightmare." Brenda silently slid off the tabletop and padded over to where he was standing, touching his arm briefly in a comforting gesture.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart," Tony said, tapping his arc reactor. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a terrible privilege."

Tasha reflexively put her own hand to her chest. Her eyes widened and she frowned as her hand hit metal. "Ducky," she muttered to herself as her own smaller arc reactor started glowing as brightly as Tony's was.

"But you can control it," Brenda murmured softly. No one had noticed Tasha's new accessory yet.

"Because I learned how," Tony countered.

"It's different."

Tony walked over to the hanging screen Bruce was working on and swiped it clean, forcing Bruce to meet his eyes. "Hey. I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure... shoulda killed you."

"So you're saying that the Hulk- the... other guy- saved my life? That's nice. It's a sentiment. Save it for what?" Bruce asked sarcastically.

"I guess we'll find out," Tony said with a shrug as he stepped away from the screen and Bruce pulled the windows back up.

"You may not enjoy that," he commented, as Brenda hesitantly raised a level a little. He looked at her, startled, and nodded.

"You just might."

\---------

Stephanie followed Steve down the long corridors. The hallways gradually grew more shadowy and less crowded than the main decks as they progressed deeper into the underbelly of the Helicarrier.

Stephanie came to a screeching halt when she realized that Steve was no longer walking beside her. He was looking inside a dark warehouse-type cargo bay. She fell back to his side and peered in as well.

He suddenly took a step back and wrapped his fingers around the edge of the door. Stephanie slid her fingers in as best as she could, getting barely more grip than he had, and together, they slowly forced the door open.

The door opened on a large, shadowy room, full of crates and pallets. Stephanie reached for the light switch, but Steve stopped her. "Keep a low profile," he murmured softly, and ventured into the cargo bay a bit more.

Stephanie walked up to a stack of boxes that was slightly taller than she was. She put a booted foot experimentally in a crack and boosted herself up. Two hands provided a lift for her foot, and she scrambled quietly up onto the pallet top. Steve just jumped onto the pallet and boosted himself onto the catwalk that ran around the warehouse. "Showoff," Stephanie muttered. Steve snorted and leaned over the railing, extending a hand to her. She jumped as high as she could; he caught her hand and manually pulled her up.

"Thanks," she murmured and dusted herself off. He nodded once at her and made his way down the catwalk, towards another floor of crates. She adjusted her shirt and pants and followed, cat-quiet.

They walked through the crates, keeping their footsteps muffled as they looked for any sign of something amiss. Stephanie spotted the crates that they were looking for and paused to see if he could figure out where it was.

Steve gave no indication of having noticed it, and Stephanie tugged at his sleeve gently. He turned to look at her; she pointed at them. "Good eye," he whispered, closing the distance and examining the lock of the crate.

They popped the locks on two of the crates and slid the tops open. Stephanie gulped as she stared at the huge gun before her. Steve heaved a heavy sigh and picked the gun up.

"Let's go have a chat with the honored Director,” he muttered.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The attack on the Helicarrier begins. Lots of things happen, most of them at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of 2 of the Helicarrier battle. This is so different from the old version, it's actually astonishing.
> 
> Enjoy!

They left the storage room and directed their steps back towards the laboratory. Stephanie followed silently behind Steve, keeping her footstep sounds to a minimum. She kept her gaze firmly fixed on the back of his head, ignoring the stares they were getting as they progressed into better-travelled corridors.

They reached the lab in just a few minutes. The doors swung open for them and they entered, just in time to hear Tony ask, "What exactly is Phase Two?"

Steve threw the gun onto the table next to Tasha with a clang, making Brenda and Tasha both jump. "Phase Two is they use the Tesseract to make weapons," he said coldly. "Sorry, computer was running a little slow for me."

Stephanie walked straight to the two young women and touched their shoulders as Fury snapped, "Rogers, just because-"

“We need to go,” she whispered. “We need to talk.”

They slid off the table and escaped into the corridor as the three men started to devolve into bickering. They passed Nathan, Lori, and Lena on their way out and snagged them, slipping away from Thor and Natasha’s notice as best they could. "Group meeting," Stephanie hissed in Lori's ear when it looked like she was about to protest. "C’mon. We don't want to be in there anyways."

They waited to run until they were in far less used corridors, but once they were out of the way, they sprinted. Stephanie took point as they arrived at the meeting room they’d first been held in and looked at the camera in the corner. “One of you, c’mere and help me,” she hissed, moving over to stand underneath it.

Lori looked up and reached out both hands, frowning as she stared at the camera. A green glow surrounded it; it jerked away from the wall, sparking ominously, and fell to land on the floor. Stephanie crushed it under her boot. “Any more?” she asked them, sweeping the remains of the camera under the table.

They found and destroyed two more cameras and a listening device, clamped to the underside of the table, before any of them were willing to sit down and talk. "Order, order!" Tasha called, banging her fist on the conference table as they took seats. "This calls to order the first council of war of the Young Avengers- Ow!" She grabbed her fist and held it close to her chest as Stephanie sighed.

"Calm down, Tash- this is serious. We need to know where each of us is going to be so we can cause the least amount of damage to the timeline," Nathan said. He templed his fingers in front of his nose, looking at each of them with sharp gray-blue eyes.

"I don't remember what happens, exactly," Brenda said, as she tucked her legs underneath her and leaned on the table. "Mind laying it out?"

"Sure," Stephanie said. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned forwards, lowering her voice. "Brenda, Bruce’s in the lab. The floor buckles, drops him and Natasha into the lower decks of the ship. He Hulks out, chases Natasha, Thor intercepts before he kills her.”

“So I just try to keep out of the way?” Brenda asked.

Stephanie shrugged, but it was Tasha that answered. “I mean, I guess. You got a Mini-Hulk rattling around in your head that we should know about?”

“I… don’t think so…” Brenda touched her temple, frowning. “If it changes, I’m not even sure I’ll be the first to know.”

Tasha snickered. Stephanie shook her head, a smile touching her lips, before turning to look at Nathan. As she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her off. “I’m gonna stick with Natasha. Don’t know that I’ll be able to do much, but I can at least offer… moral… support?”

Lori smirked at that, but Stephanie nodded once. Her eyes and voice were serious as she turned to look at him and said, “Nathan.” He gave her all his attention. “There’s a chance Claire will be with Clint. If she is, and if she’s been mind-controlled…”

He stared at her, growing solemn. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I can do it. I have to.”

She nodded at him. “I believe you,” she said evenly.

Tasha let out a huff of air. “Great. Now that that solemnity fest is over, I’m gonna stick with Stark, help him fix the engine, maybe try to haul Rogers’ sorry rear back into the catwalk.”

Stephanie glowered at the other girl, but Lena stepped in before she could snap back. “I will go with Thor. I shall do my best to not allow him to be trapped in the cage. Some things could be changed if he does not, I believe.”

There was a dark silence.

“I’m going to meet Loki,” Lori said quietly. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything, but I want to see if I can.”

“Will you go with him?” Lena asked her.

Lori lifted one shoulder. For the first time since setting foot in the universe, she looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know. Maybe. We’ll see.”

“Whatever you decide, we’ll try to back you,” Nathan said.

She looked around the room, searching the faces of those present. The same thing was displayed on each of their faces- trust and support.

“Thanks, guys,” she whispered, and bit her lip.

Lena clapped her hand on Lori’s shoulder. “It will be all right,” she said. Then she looked up. “Stephanie. Where shall you be?”

“With Steve,” she said with a shrug. “I know marginally more about computers than he does. Maybe I can help, in some way.”

Tasha snorted at that, shaking her head and grinning. “Good luck with that,” she said, shoving herself to her feet. “Let’s get moving.”

At that exact moment, the Helicarrier shuddered. Everyone looked up.

“We took too long,” Brenda gasped. “We’ve gotta move, now!”

\------

They sprinted out of the meeting room, back towards the lab. It took them just a minute or two to get to the lab; once inside, Brenda skidded to a halt just inside the door. Nathan grabbed her shoulder before she could trip and fall into the gaping hole in the floor.

“We going down there?” he muttered, staring at the hole with something akin to distrust in his eyes.

“Do we have a choice?” Brenda asked in return. She took a few hesitant steps forwards and skidded down the metal slope, arriving beside Natasha and Bruce. Nathan followed her lead, crouching by Natasha’s foot. He grabbed the pipe and strained, gritting his teeth against the weight. She pulled hard and managed to free herself. He helped her up, but refrained from going near Bruce and Brenda.

Brenda was crouched at Bruce’s side, a panicked look in her eyes as she tried to calm him down. “Deep breaths, with me,” she said finally, swallowing hard. “C’n you do that for me? Please?”

He managed to follow her breathing for just a minute, but then the Helicarrier shuddered again and he lost it. His skin started to turn green, and he scrambled away from the smaller girl. “Get away,” he ordered her, voice a low growl. “Get AWAY!”

She scrambled back, looking terrified. Nathan grabbed her upper arms and pulled her back to sit with him and Natasha.

Bruce pushed himself away from them, fists clenching as he began to turn green. Brenda covered her mouth with her hands, eyes watering in sympathy. It looked painful, extremely so. “Bruce?” she was unable to keep from asking.

He turned to look over his shoulder, eyes wide and watering and turning bloodshot, filled with agony and fear. Then the moment was lost. He fell against a pipe, steadily turning more and more green.

“We gotta run,” Nathan muttered, standing up and yanking Brenda up with him. “We’ve gotta run, now.” His eyes cast around for an escape route; they fell on a pathway through the pipes that was small enough for them all to fit. “C’mon!”

He pulled Brenda with them and put Natasha in the lead, allowing the injured party to set the pace she could handle. Brenda looked over her shoulder one last time, just in time to see the Hulk look up. His eyes were filled with deadly intent as he focused on them. She gave an involuntary whimper.

“RUN!” Nathan shouted to Natasha, as the Hulk roared behind them and took off.

\---------

Stephanie sprinted beside Steve on their way to where their suits were, barely keeping up. “What’re we gonna do?” she asked, panting slightly.

“Go help Stark fix the engine,” he said, rounding a corner and almost running over someone. “Sorry!” he called over his shoulder and continued, “You stick next to me. I don’t want you getting caught in the crossfire.”

_Yeah, well, I won’t have a choice if I’m with you,_ she thought, but only nodded.

As soon as they skidded into the storeroom where their uniforms were held, Stephanie snatched her suit out of its section, slipping into a small changing room off the main room. She changed in approximately 45 seconds and stepped out as she was zipping her boots back up. She had a strap that went over her shoulder and down to her hip that her shield hooked on. It wasn’t the most comfortable way of hauling her shield around, but it would do until she could ask someone to upgrade it.

Steve met her at the entrance to the room, giving his costume a sad glance when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Leaving your helmet?” he asked as he walked past her.

She followed close behind him, taking up position to his left and back. “Yeah. Hopefully I won’t need it,” she said.

“Hopefully not,” Steve murmured, before turning and passing her an earphone. “Here- plug that in and let’s go.”

“Got it,” she said, plugging the headphone in. “Yo, Tasha, what’s the sitch?”

“It’s pretty bad. Get your ass out here and let’s get to work,” Tasha told her.

They made their way through the ship to the broken engine. It was a pretty abrupt change- one second they were in a slightly windy corridor, the next they were at the edge of open air. Steve came to a halt so fast Stephanie almost knocked him right off the Helicarrier.

“Stark, I’m here!” Steve shouted, trying to be heard above the wind. “Where are you?” There was no answer for a minute. “Stark!” he shouted again.

“Right here,” Tony said out of nowhere, shooting up from the underside of the Helicarrier. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with…”

Tasha was basically on his tail, stopping a few feet above him. “Good thing I’m not afraid of heights,” she said casually, mostly as an aside to Stephanie. The other girl laughed, shielding her eyes as she looked out at the clouds. It’d be beautiful, if they weren’t about to plunge out of the sky.

"We gotta get the superconducting coolant system back online before I can access the rotors to work on dislodging the debris. I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position." Tony said quickly. He was a distance away, but they both saw him point at the panel in question.

“Got it,” Steve said, taking a deep breath and sprinting towards the section of catwalk still attached to the wall. Stephanie followed close behind, grinning as she launched herself over the gap. He yanked the panel off the wall and pulled out the panel.

“What’s it look like in there?” Tony asked, somewhat absent, as he continued to inspect the damage at the engine.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity," Steve said dryly as he examined the switches. Stephanie was about as confused as he was, staring curiously at it.

"Well, you're not wrong," Tasha said, equally dry. “Take a look and tell me what switches are red and which are green. The green ones mean the relay’s still intact. If the switch is green, throw it one way and then back- that should reset it.”

“Got it. When did you become a techie?” Stephanie asked as she started to go down the panel.

“Last night.”

She snorted at that and they got to work.

\------------

Brenda ran with Nathan, glancing over her shoulder in terror. The Hulk was after them, roaring in sheer fury. Behind them glass shattered, showering her back with shards. She felt some of them hit her and cut her clothes and her back, but she couldn’t stop.

Her breath was coming in pants, and her legs burned horribly. She forced herself to keep going, but she was starting to tire. Nathan pulled on her arm, and she put on a burst of speed, before slowing again, unable to keep pace.

“Brenda, I know you’re tired, but we’ve gotta run!” Nathan shouted. “Just a little farther-“

One of the Hulk’s massive hands shot out and backhanded Brenda. Her hand slipped from Nathan’s grasp. There was a brief moment of blind terror on her face as their eyes met, and then she was shooting through the air. She slammed into a metal wall and crumbled.

“BRENDA!” he shouted, before Natasha grabbed his hand and pulled. “BRENDA!”

“We’ll come back for her, now run!” the assassin shouted, but they’d run long enough. There was a loud crashing noise, and a blonde-and-red blur tackled Hulk through the wall, into a hangar.

Nathan ran to Brenda’s side as soon as Natasha released his arm. Lena sprinted through the pipes to reach him as he knelt beside her and rolled her into the recovery position. “Is she alive?” the young woman asked, half-frantic as she knelt down and touched Brenda’s face.

Nathan checked her pulse- it was there, pounding in her wrist. “Yeah,” he said, breathing out a sigh of relief. “She’s alive-“

Brenda stirred under his hands. He rocked back on her heels as she blinked several times, before looking up at them. “What- what happened?” she asked, bleary-eyed and blinking.

“The Hulk caught you and threw you-“ Nathan started to say, only to stop and frown. “Look at me.”

Brenda looked at him, eyes narrowed to slits. “Why?” she asked, sounding like she was half asleep.

“Lena, back up,” he said instead, and lifted one of her eyelids.

Her eyes, normally a dark brown, were poisonous green. Now that he noticed it, her olive skin was turning green in places, and her breathing rate was increasing.

“Brenda, I need you to stay calm for me,” he said, taking her hand in his own and squeezing it. “Stay calm, ok, deep breaths in and out. You can do it. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in-“

Her eyes widened in terror. “Get away from me!” she shrieked abruptly, shoving herself upright and scrambling towards the hole in the wall. “Lena- she’s coming out, she’s angry-“

“I will do my best, friend,” Lena said firmly, as Nathan pushed himself away from them. “Let her out. She may be more willing to listen to reason if you allow her out.”

Brenda gave them a tight smile, took a deep breath, and relaxed. Within a few seconds, she’s blossomed into a six or seven-foot-tall green giant. Her outfit somewhat manage to grow with her; her pants and sports-bra managed to grow with her, but her lavender shirt ended up shredded. At the end of her transformation, Mini-Hulk stood before them, breathing heavily.

“Hey, Mini,” Nathan said, giving her a semi-reassuring smile. “Brenda’s ok. You did good.”

Mini-Hulk huffed, before the Hulk’s roar from behind made them all turn. The giant turned, tilting her head.

Lena gave Nathan a hand up. He muttered in her ear, “Be ready. She may go help Hulk-“

He didn’t even get to finish the sentence before Mini-Hulk took off towards the battle. Lena rolled her eyes, even though she was grinning. “Go and retrieve Claire,” she told him, cracking her knuckles. “I shall handle this. FOR ASGARD!” she roared, and sprinted after Mini-Hulk. 

Nathan retreated to Natasha’s side, resting his hands on his hips and taking a deep breath. The events of the past three minutes were finally catching up with him, and he closed his eyes tightly. 

“You all right?” Natasha asked, from her seat against a wall. She seemed to be faring marginally better than him. 

He tilted his head downwards, staring at the ground. “I guess,” he told her. “What’s next?”

She opened her mouth to reply, but Fury cut her off abruptly. "It's Barton- he took out our systems, he's headed for the detention level. He has a second party with him. Does anybody copy?"

Nathan’s breath hitched in the back of his throat. Claire. They looked at each other, before he offered her a hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. Once she was on her feet, she pressed a hand to her ear and spoke. "This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."

\----------

Meanwhile, out in the open air, Stephanie and Steve were finishing up with the relays. She flipped the last one into position and nodded in satisfaction as the entire board lit up green. "Ok, the relays are intact!” Steve shouted. “What's our next move?"

"Even if I cleared the rotors this thing won't reengage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push," Tony reported, half-muttering to himself as he hovered back to check his handiwork. Tasha yanked a piece of debris out of the way and tossed it towards the Helicarrier, unwilling to let it drop. She drifted up to hover next to him.

"If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!" Steve said, turning to look at Tony and Tasha. Stephanie did the same, shielding her eyes against the bright light.

"Then stay at the control unit and reverse the polarity long enough to disengage mag lab-" Stark said, talking so fast Stephanie’s head spun. 

Steve clearly felt the same way, because he snapped, "Speak English!"

Tony gave a longsuffering sigh. "See that red lever?" he asked.

She cast around, searching for it, before finally spotting the lever. It was some distance away, and required a huge jump to reach. "Yeah," she said, pointing it out to Steve.

"Pull that. It'll give us enough time to get out," Tasha said.

"Enough time for me to get out," Tony corrected.

She groaned. "Fine..."

Tony vanished into the engine and Tasha watched worriedly from high above. Iron Man got into position and put his palms flat against the blade of the fan. The blasters at his feet fired even brighter as he began pushing. 

It was at that precise moment that the brain-washed agents appeared. Stephanie watched as one of them pulled a grenade out of his belt pouch. She lunged for him, slamming into the man and knocking him to the ground. He’d popped the pin, and she snatched it out of his hands, whirled, and hurled it into open air. It created a small explosion, but it didn’t hurt anyone.

She yanked her shield off her back and slammed it into the side of the man’s head, as hard as she dared. He went limp. His friends brought their guns up and began firing. She tucked herself down behind the shield and winced against the rat-tat-tat-tat-tat of bullets on metal. 

“You good?” Steve shouted to her. 

She grabbed the gun off the man’s body and fired around her shield, trying her best to aim for body armor instead of skin. “I’ve got this, go!” she shouted back. 

He nodded to her and turned. The lever was a leap away; he sprinted and launched himself across the gap. 

The movement attracted the attention of the mind-controlled soldiers. Two of them pinned Stephanie down with gunfire; a third aimed at Steve. The hail of bullets forced Stephanie to turtle behind her shield, unable to return fire. 

Tasha alternated between watching as Tony turned into a blur in the engine and Stephanie and Steve fended the soldiers off. It looked like Steph would be able to keep the soldiers from shooting Stev, but she wasn’t entirely sure. 

Sure enough, she watched as Stephanie got stuck behind her shield. “Leave her alone, you shits!” She shouted and fired a few energy blasts from her palms at them. 

“Forget about me!” Stephanie told her, half-shouting. “Steve’s over there! Go get him!”

She turned and jolted, shooting towards Steve. His foot had slipped and he was dangling from the Helicarrier by a wire. Tasha poured on speed and dropped down to grab him around his middle. She put on an extra burst of energy and landed him beside the lever.

“Pull it!” Tony shouted. 

Steve reached out, grabbed the lever, and pulled on it as hard as he could. Tasha fired a few blasts at the men attacking them. Tony dropped out the bottom of the fan and shouted “Duck!” to Stephanie, who obeyed. He body-slammed a man back into the corridor, then rolled back up to his feet.

The four of them gathered at the entrance to the hallway. Stephanie rubbed her shoulder, checking for bullet wounds. Besides a few grazes, she was fine.

“Everyone in one piece?” Steve asked.

They nodded around the board. “Let’s go see what happened,” Tony said grimly, and they made their way back into the ship.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lori finally meets Loki, Claire and Nathan have a fight, Lena tries to pick up Mjolnir, and Coulson gets stuck in limbo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew. Editing? More like rewriting the entire story. I don't even want to think about the battle.
> 
> Enjoy.

Lori sprinted into Loki’s cell room just in time to see him step out- the real version of him step out. She stopped in the doorway, staring silently at him. He halted outside his cell, observing her calmly with sharp blue eyes.

“Hello,” he said. His voice was silky. It sent a shiver up her spine. 

“Hello to you as well,” she said, straightening her back. “Going somewhere?”

“I was planning on it,” he said, walking forwards at a steady rate. He halted beside the control panel and touched the screen. Lori remained in her position, watching him. 

“Have you come to stop me?” Loki asked her, not paying her the least bit of attention.

“I haven’t decided yet,” she said.

This got a slight reaction out of him; he glanced up at her. “I see.” 

“So,” she asked, finally moving over to see what he was doing. “What are you up to?”

“Waiting,” Loki said.

“For what?”

He looked up as footsteps sounded nearby. “For that,” he murmured with a satisfied smile, and vanished, reappearing in the cage. Too late, Lori realized he’d set her up- it looked like she was at the controls. The door slid open just as Thor entered, Lena right on his heels. 

“Thor, hold,” Lena said immediately, as Loki stepped out. “Something is not right.”

Thor looked between Loki and Lori, then back to Lena. “Why do you say that?” he asked, watching as Loki strode forwards.

“Why would he wait until now to leave the cage?” Lena asked, narrowing her eyes at Loki. “Why not depart earlier?”

Lori stepped away from the cage controls. “I didn’t open the cage,” she said quietly. “Loki did that.”

“Indeed,” Loki said, finally giving up his façade. “I find myself surprised. Perhaps the girl has given you common sense at last, Thor.” 

“Rude,” Lori muttered under her breath. 

Loki chose to ignore her and continued, “Unfortunately, I cannot allow you to stop me.” He waved his hand. A green mist surrounded Thor and Lena, depositing them inside the cage. The door closed before Thor could leave. Thor growled and slammed Mjolnir into the glass wall of the cage before Lena could caution him. The entire cage shuddered; Lori caught her breath as it didn’t fall.

"The humans think us immortal,” Loki said, hand hovering over the ejection button. “Shall we test that?"

"Move away, please."

Agent Coulson stepped into the room. He hefted a massive gun in his hand, barrel glowing a dangerous orange. Lena's eyes widened; she shot a frantic look at Lori. Lori reflected the horror the other girl felt.

"You like this?" Coulson asked, slowly moving closer. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Want to find out?"

Loki raised his hands, stepping away from the control panel. Lori latched onto his arm, feigning fear; in reality, she hoped her touch would be enough to keep him from turning invisible. 

"You as well." Coulson pointed the barrel of the gun at Lori. She tucked herself farther behind Loki.

“Please don’t point that at me,” she told him. “I’m trying to hold a neutral position for the moment, and you threatening me isn’t exactly tipping the scales in your favor.”

Things after that happened almost too fast to follow. Lori felt something about Loki shimmer. Too late, she realized what had happened, and cried “No!” Lena caught on quickly and gasped in horror, slamming her fist on the glass as hard as she could. Coulson watched their reactions with confusion, confusion which swiftly morphed into shock and pain as the scepter pierced his chest. The double of Loki Lori had clung to disappeared, revealing Loki himself standing behind Coulson. He yanked the scepter out of his chest as Lori choked, sprinting forwards. She helped the agent to the ground and shoved strands of her pitch-black hair out of her face, ignoring Thor’s roar of shock and pain. Her palms pressed down on the gushing wound; she frantically tried to figure out how to use her magic to knit the skin back together.

Loki stared down at her; she didn’t dare look up as she tried to figure out how to save the man. After a moment, he moved over to the control panel again. 

Lori spun as Coulson weakly gestured to look behind her. She was too late for that as well- the cage plunged out the bottom of the Helicarrier before her eyes. She swallowed and turned back around, casting out a mental net for any way to save him.

Coulson’s eyes tracked upwards. Lori felt a presence loom behind her. Before she could say or do anything, Loki’s hand landed firmly on her shoulder, and they vanished. 

\------------

Nathan held his breath as he crouched underneath the catwalk. Natasha sat next to him, looking at ease, almost bored. He, on the other hand, felt like a nervous wreck. 

Claire was coming. He could hear footsteps, walking in time with militaristic precision, approaching at a brisk pace. There were two sets, and two sets alone. One of them was lighter than the other.

They turned the corner, and he slowly turned to look at Natasha. She caught his eye and held up her hand, giving him a five-fingered hand. The footsteps drew closer. She lowered one finger, then another, her chin slightly lifted to look at the walkway overhead.

Once her countdown reached one, she pointed for him to go one way. He obediently scrambled up onto the catwalk as quietly as he could, thankful for the sound-muffling boots he wore. Natasha emerged from the other side, slinking through the railing like a cat. She stood up, walking behind Clint in perfect time with his own footsteps. Nathan scurried forwards to do the same behind Claire.

In tandem, the two archers whirled on them, and Nathan was treated to his worst fear in color- Claire's eyes were a brilliant blue, brighter than Stephanie's. She lunged for him, bow swinging in an arch that would connect with his collarbone-

Except his collarbone was nowhere to be found. Nathan dropped like a stone as soon as he saw the blow coming and charged, using his superior weight to bulldoze Claire backwards. She retaliated by wrapping her legs around his waist and throwing herself backwards. Already off balance, Nathan tumbled head-over-heels forwards, but managed to turn it into a roll. He came to his feet and spun around to face her.

Now Claire was at a distance. She noched an arrow swiftly and drew. He charged again, unwilling to let her fire at him. She dodged and fired- the arrow grazed his shoulder. He winced and dropped, shooting one foot out to catch her in the stomach. She didn’t move in time; he winced at the solid “oof” that emerged from her mouth.

Then she was on him, swinging her bow like a melee weapon. He blocked with his reinforced Widow’s Bite and grabbed hold, twisting her bow hard. She lost her grip and he kicked it away from her. It skittered over the edge of the catwalk and slid underneath.

Now her bow was out of action, but that didn’t mean Claire was. She drew an arrow and lunged for him, arm across her body with an arrow ready to stab him. He waited until the last minute and let her pass. She overshot and stumbled, something he took advantage of. One arm wrapped around her, trapping her upper arms in place and limiting her mobility. The other put her in a chokehold.

He walked her closer to the railing, steeling himself for what he would have to do. Claire fought him wildly. One elbow jammed into his stomach; he hung on, grim-faced.

Then she went limp.

It was too soon, and he knew it. There was no way he could’ve choked her out by then. He still loosened his grip on her, which turned out to be a mistake. One hand passed the arrow off to the other, free hand. Then Claire swung her arm up in an arch and buried the arrow in his shoulder.

He yelled at that. The thing had to have been barbed, with razor sharp edges. The armor he wore stopped it from penetrating too deeply, but it still hurt worse than anything he’d ever experienced, including when he broke his leg at 12 years old. The pain gave him strength, though- he had to end it now, or risk her getting away to do more damage.

He twisted Claire slightly, said a silent prayer, and released her.

She folded to the ground like he’d expected. Her head slammed into the bottom rung of the railing. She cried out in pain, and he darted around to crouch in front of her. 

The blue he hated so much was flickering. “Claire?” he asked, fingers on his good hand crossed.

She looked at him, brown warring with blue. “Nate?” she asked.

“Sorry, babe,” he whispered, and slammed her head into the railing once again.

\--------

Falling inside a glass-and-metal container was not something Lena wanted to experience ever again. She tumbled head-over-heels, unable to discern which ways were up and down. 

Thor’s hand wrapped around her upper arm and wrenched her into his side. “Stay close!” he shouted- unnecessarily, because Lena held on for dear life. Now would be a bad time to discover she had motion-sickness, she decided. 

“Are you ready?” Thor called to her, as he gripped Mjolnir tight in his free hand. 

“As I can be!” she shouted back. 

“Good!” And he dropped down to brace his feet against one window. 

It allowed Lena the chance to finally look around and take in the view. The sky was a crystal clear blue, the clouds wisps of cotton drifting overhead. Of course, they were still spinning, and she was soon treated to a much closer view of the ground and the rocky coast rapidly approaching.

Thor gave a wordless roar and raised Mjolnir, pointing it at the pane of glass he’d already hit. Lena braced and shielded her face with one arm. They crashed through the glass with an enormous *SMASH*, going clear through it and straight towards the field beyond the rocky coastline. Lena tucked her head down further, feeling the dirt rake through her hair and down her back. 

Finally they rolled to a stop. Lena released her death-grip on Thor and scrambled to her feet, reaching out a hand to help him up. He took it, and she put all of her strength into pulling him up.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, once they were both standing. 

She looked up from dusting herself off. "I have just witnessed the death of a good man. It will, perhaps, take me some time to heal.”  
Thor gently patted her shoulder. "I understand. Take time to mourn."

She nodded and looked around. "Where did Mjolnir go? Did you release it?"

"Yes," he said. “I did, once I was sure we were free of the cage. I believe it is in that direction-“ this said gesturing off to his right.

Lena frowned and looked in that direction. "I… I wish to ask, if I could attempt to wield Mjolnir," she asked.

“Then let us find it,” Thor said, and together they set out across the field, following the trench the hammer had created. 

They walked for three or four minutes in complete silence. Lena took that time to reflect on the battle between her and Brenda’s alter-ego, Mini-Hulk.

The new Hulk was strong, but Lena could see Brenda behind her eyes, telling her to keep the blows light. It was nothing Lena couldn’t take, though- her strength had increased exponentially, making her much more powerful. It had almost been a fun sparring match, until Hulk got shot by the fighter jet and Mini-Hulk went off after him.

She hoped Brenda was all right. A fall from that high up would doubtless be survivable, but the landing could be rough if Brenda didn’t regain control. 

She was pulled out of her thoughts by their arrival at Mjolnir. It looked, quite honestly, like it’d been placed; the handle was pointing up, as if waiting to be grasped. She looked at Thor, who gestured for her to go ahead. 

Slowly, Lena reached out her hand and grasped the handle. She shut her eyes tight, crossed her fingers, and lifted.

Mjolnir weighed no more than a normal hammer to her. She lifted it up, eyes widening in awe. 

Electricity jolted through her hand, down her arm and into her core. She coughed in surprise and turned Mjolnir over in her hands. “I believe it shocked me,” she told him, laughing a little.

“Summon lightning,” Thor suggested, standing a decent distance away and crossing his arms over his chest. A smile touched the corner of his lips as she looked at him.

Lena took a deep breath in and released it slowly. It still felt like lightning was jolting through her veins, causing her left hand to twitch slightly. She tightened her grip on Mjolnir and raised it, not sure what to do or expect.

Mjolnir worked for her. As it reached directly over her head, she felt the lightning in her sing, calling out to the clear sky overhead. Before her very eyes, clouds gathered, creating a vortex over her head. She felt her jaw drop in awe as lightning flashed before her eyes. For any mortal, it would’ve been a blinding display; for Lena, it was the most spectacular thing she’d ever seen. 

She felt the biggest bolt of all gather, charging the air around her with potential. “Oh dear,” she murmured, and braced herself.

The bolt hit Mjolnir and traveled down the hilt, into her arm and settling in her chest. She coughed on the feeling as more sparked around her, setting minor bushfires all around her feet. She lowered Mjolnir, allowing the storm to dissipate, still coughing. 

Thor grinned, applauding for her. “Very well done,” he told her.

She coughed again and patted her chest. “I believe I retained some of the lightning,” she said, then looked at him. “Do you do the same?”

Thor nodded. “On occasion, yes. However, it appears you gained more lightning than I retain usually. Perhaps because you have no weapon while I wield Mjolnir?”

“Perhaps,” she said, shaking out her other hand. “Would you like this back?” She offered him Mjolnir. 

Thor hesitated.

“I shall leave it here for you,” she said, and gently set the hammer down. 

Thor nodded his thanks and moved away to brood. Lena spread her cloak out and sat down beside Mjolnir. She laid back and looked up at the sky, basking in the sunshine while she waited.

 

Steve, Stephanie, Tony, and Tasha were all still en route to the control room of the Helicarrier when their communicators crackled. 

"Coulson's down," Fury said, voice low.

"No," Tasha breathed. 

Stephanie froze. Steve rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly as the radio chatter increased, only to drop off to nothing as Fury said, "The medics are here. They've called it."

She closed her eyes and covered her mouth with one hand. Steve wrapped an arm around her in a side hug. She returned the favor and cried into his shirt, trying to keep her sobs to a minimum. Tasha bowed her head; Tony looked devastated.

They made it to the control room. Tony disassembled his armor and helped Tasha do the same, before sitting down heavily at the table. Stephanie sat in Bruce's vacated chair, between Steve and Tony. Tasha sat to Tony's left, and the rest of the chairs were vacant.

Fury walked over to the table, head bowed. He pulled out a set of Captain America trading cards and threw them onto the table. "We found these in Coulson's pocket.” He sighed. “Guess he never did get them signed."

Stephanie reached out and picked one up. She touched the blood with a delicate finger and sniffed it as casually as she could, before frowning and examining the cards a bit longer.

"Yes, Phase Two was using the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction. I never put all my chips on that number, however, and planned something... different."

He paused, and Stephanie waited for the inevitable speech.

"There was an idea- Stark knows this- to bring together a group of remarkable people so when we needed them, they could fight the battles we never could."

Stephanie lip-synced the words, keeping her head down to not attract attention. Tasha leaned forwards and caught her eye. They nodded at each other.

"Phil Coulson died believing in heroes," Fury said. "I still believe in heroes."

There was silence, before Tony stood up and left the room. Tasha followed after him and fell in beside him as they left.

"Well... it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury said.


End file.
